Democrats smell opportunity in the South after Virginia rout

Democrats smell opportunity in the South after Virginia rout

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National Democrats are seeing glimmers of electoral hope flickering across the deep red South for the first time in years.

Fresh off sweeping victories in Virginia, and eyeing a possible historic upset in Alabama, the party is looking ahead to a political environment next year defined by both energized liberal base voters and discouraged conservatives. That, combined with an intraparty GOP war, has liberal leaders taking a new look at Senate, gubernatorial and House races in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina and Mississippi, in addition to next month’s contest in Alabama.

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One or two upsets in the South next year could be the difference in which party controls the Senate after next year’s midterms.

The new, long-shot interest is partially borne of necessity: forced to defend incumbents everywhere else, the South provides some of Democrats’ only takeover targets. But whether by necessity or choice, the attention to a region of the country long thought of as too forbidding to bother with is long overdue, some prominent Democrats say.

“It depends on how the Democratic Party plays it: If they work under the assumption that simply not being Republican is enough, then they’re in for a big disappointment,” said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards — one of just two Southern Democratic governors outside of Virginia — who, like North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, frequently speaks with candidates in the region to offer advice. “But if they understand that this presents an opportunity for them to reconnect with voters who moved away from the Democratic Party over the last couple of decades, and then do what is required to reconnect with them, then there is a tremendous opportunity.”

Waking up to a new electoral landscape after stunning wins in Virginia and across the country last week, Democrats’ confidence in the region was only buoyed by last week’s Washington Post report that twice-removed Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore had pursued four teenagers when he was in his 30s. The allegations, which included an accusation by one woman thatMoore initiated sexual contact with her when she was 14, landed one month before Election Day.

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Yet it was the nature of Virginia’s victories that gave Democrats the most long-term hope. Some of Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam’s biggest margins in the gubernatorial race came in suburban areas similar to the ones that dot North Carolina and Georgia, and down-ballot Democrats swept into power across those districts.

While winning in conservative areas of the South has been difficult for Democrats in recent decades, the movement of droves of highly educated suburban voters away from Donald Trump-era Republicans is a shift significant enough to set the stage for potentially competitive races.

Count Republicans as highly skeptical. They’re quick to note how often they hear Democrats talk about a return to the region, and how seldom it works. They note that for all of Northam’s advantages, he still lost by large margins in Virginia’s rural areas that look more like the rest of the South than the suburban enclaves.

“I hope they spend $100 million trying to win the South,” said Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor and Republican National Committee chairman.

“Trump winning is the best thing that happened to Democratic politics here in a long time,” said South Carolina lawyer Boyd Brown, a former state legislator and DNC member. “It’s unfortunate that we have to suffer through him to revitalize a dead party, but he’s the best thing since sliced bread.”

In the past week, national Democratic leaders have been looking for ways to broaden their scope in the South. They’re searching for offensive opportunities to supplement the many defensive fights they must wage in 2018, including reelecting 10 senators in states Trump won last year.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s target list now includes eight GOP-held seats in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and North Carolina, on top of 14 others in Virginia, Florida and Texas. Stronger-than-usual recruits have party operatives uncharacteristically hopeful about open gubernatorial races in Georgia and Tennessee, and others are working on recruiting former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Bob Corker.

That’s not all. Even if Bredesen skips the race, Democrats are high on Iraq War veteran and prosecutor James Mackler, who already entered the race and has been meeting with national-level donors. North Carolina Democrats led by Cooper are aiming to claw back a number of seats in the state legislature. And, with local firebrand Chris McDaniel threatening to mount a primary challenge against GOP Sen. Roger Wicker with support from ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Mississippi Democrats have been eyeing Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, a distant cousin of Elvis Presley, for the race.

“If there’s a wave, by God there will be a sea change in the South,” said Democratic National Committee Associate Chairman Jaime Harrison, a former party chair in South Carolina who’s been traveling through Southern states to evaluate state party infrastructures. “For the first time, we’re putting people and bodies and talent in races.”